Underneath It All
by Southern Kitty
Summary: Dawn unwillingly goes to LA, and her secrets start to be unraveled as she lets the LA team get close to her, and they see things that even her 'family' have never seen.
1. Prologue

Title: Underneath It All Rating: R (May go higher later on) Shipper: Dawn and Connor of course Disclaimer: If I own Angel/BTVS or/and their characters, would I really being writing silly fics? No. I don't own anything except the plot line. UPN and Joss and whoever else owns them, not me. So there. I disclaim. Summary: Buffy sends Dawn to LA under Angel's protection, afraid of another 'key' card being pulled on them from the first. Dawn unwillingly goes to LA, and her secrets start to be unraveled as she lets the LA team get close to her, and they see things that even her 'family' have never seen.  
  
A/N: Set during season 7 of BTVS, and the beginning of season 4 of Angel. Basically everything up until the slayers-in-training started heading into Sunnydale, and the beginning of Angel, so Cordy's back with her memory, but she and connor never slept together, and The Beast was killed, so the LA team are trying to help with the First...but from a distance. I'm not a big Buffy fan, so there will probably be bashing, don't take offense, it's just how I am. Oh And Spike and Dawn have returned to normal, as well as Angel and Connor having an 'ok' relationship.  
  
~* Prologue *~  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
A teenage girl stood in the middle of a large lobby, bags set down by her feet as she looked around. Long light brown hair swung past her shoulders in slight waves and framed a beautiful, rounded face that had a look of amazement on it. Big blue eyes gazed around at the size of everything, full pink lips parted slightly, a hint of sadness carved into her eyes. She stood somewhat tall, the awkward lankiness that should have been there, having disappeared not so long ago, replaced with subtle curves. She wore a pair of faded flared jeans that hung slightly off her hips with a black tank-top that showed off a bit a skin between the shirt and pants. A denim jacket covering the tank top.  
  
She looked like the everyday normal 16 year old girl, but she was so much more. She was the slayers kid sis, she was a key...*the* Key to all dimensions. She was wanted by hellgods and used for rituals. She was made of a magical energy that had probably killed thousands of people and dimensions since before time itself.  
  
"Can I help- Dawn?" Angel paused at the end of the stairs as the young woman who had previously had her back to him, turned around. He wouldn't have recgonized if not for those blue eyes, he would remember them anywhere.  
  
"Angel.." Dawn smiled slightly, but it was a weak shot at being kind. She hadn't wanted to come, but she hadn't really wanted to stay back and fight either. She was tired of everything, of people dying, of her being wisked off for protection, of the world almost ending.  
  
It was stressful and she just wanted it to stop. No one knew that she was battling with depression, that she felt it all the time, that her smiles were fake and all for show. No one knew that sometimes, to keep out the emotional pain, that she'd cut herself. Even when she wore short sleeve shirts and her scars showed....no one suspected a thing, and maybe that's what made it all that much more sad.  
  
Of course Spike didn't fit into that category. He knew it all. He'd seen her cuts, he knew of her depression, and he tried. He honestly tried to help her and she appreciated that more than anything. But nothing helped, and...and she wished it was over.  
  
Did it really make her twisted and messed up that she just wanted it all to be over, for everything to end so she could rest. She didn't have a slayers job...but it was too hard, holding this energy in all the time, pretending to not be anything, pretending that the key part of her was gone, when all along, she was trying to stop herself from evolving the way she knew she had too.  
  
"Your all grown up..." Cordy said with a soft smile as she walked down the stairs behind Angel, bringing Dawn out of her thoughts. "I shouldn't be surprised though, considering this is the first time I've seen you in 4 years, of course you should look older. Gotta say you have better fashion sense than CryBuffy though."  
  
"Hey Cordelia." She felt uncomfortable now. She didn't want everyone that she had known when she was younger telling her how grown up she was. But she engaged in conversation with the two, mainly keeping the subject off her and Sunnydale, and asking alot of questions about them and LA. She knew they had been told about the happenings in Sunnydale, but she also knew they only knew about the current situation. They had no clue of what had happened in past couple of years and she doubted they knew everything about her.  
  
Before she knew it, she was being left alone in a room to unpack. The room was bigger than her own in Sunnydale, and even had it's own bathroom.  
  
'That's a plus.' She thought as she began to unpack everything. She never saw an older boy gazing in her room through the crack in the door, watching her with fascination. But she did feel the pricklings she got whenever someone watched her and when she turned around, all she found was her door cracked open and nothing else.  
  
TBC 


	2. First Introductions

~* Chapter One *~  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
She sat with her back flat against the wall, on the floor between her bed and the window, staring blankly at the wall across from her. Her legs were drawn up against her, her arms resting on her bent knee's and her hands dangling there motionless, in one hand, was a bottle of pills...anti- depressents. Her head was resting back against the wall, her hair pull back in a loose ponytail, a few strains from her face.  
  
She sat there silently, watching the morning sun from behind her rising on the wall across from her, still clad in the clothes she'd slept in the night before.  
  
Well, she hadn't really slept in them, just sorta lied around in them. It was a little weird for her to sleep during the night now. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd slept straight through the night without being woken for research duty, or to help out, or just because some demon was crashing into their home. Hell, she hadn't even been to school in a few weeks...and now she was in LA, she wondered briefly how Buffy would explain her absence to the principal and school.  
  
She knew she was wallowing, but she was allowed to, wasn't she? She had just been shipped off to people she hadn't seen in years, her life was in shambles because once again, the life her sister lead, was affecting her, and she was...she was...  
  
She didn't know what to call herself. She wasn't Dawnie. She wasn't who she would have much rather been then herself. She was just this shell of a person now. Empty smiles and laughs...empty everything.  
  
She chuckled quietly to herself. It was really sorta funny if you thought about it.  
  
She was supposed to be everything her sister wasn't and have everything she didn't. She was tall, and brunette and blue eyed...her sister was short, and blonde and green eyed. She had fashion sense, but didn't need it and loved school, her sister hated school and loved fashion, but didn't have it. Her sister had a destiny to save lives....and in her past, she had probably killed lives. Her sister lead anything but a normal life, and she was supposed to be living that normal life.  
  
....And instead, she was here. Sitting on the floor of her new bedroom, locked away from the outside world.  
  
She sighed and closed her eyes, blocking out her own thoughts for a moment. They were beginning to give her a headache. If she continued on like this, not pulling out the 'happy' her, Angel and co. would suspect something, they would tell Buffy and she didn't want that. She didn't want them to be told just so they could come swooping in being all hero-like. They weren't hero's when it came to her. They could look right over her and ignore her, forget her. They couldn't see the signs she'd set out just for them, they didn't deserve for someone else to point out their mistakes just so they could fix them.  
  
"Dawn?" The teenager's eyes snapped open wide and she scrambled to stand up, quickly shoving her bottle of pills in between the mattresses of her bed. "You awake sweetie?" She could hear the soft voice of the brunette Texan she'd met the day before. Fred? That was her name, wasn't it? She wasn't mistaken....was she?  
  
"Angel is up and making breakfast ... he asked me to come wake you up. Taco's would have been much better but it's way too early for that and we can have those for lunch anyways." For the first time, in a very long time, Dawn actually smiled of own free will. The older woman's obsession with Taco's was just...well it was amusing, and even her, with all her weird thoughts and empty smiles, could manage a genuine smile.  
  
"I'm awake... Just give me a few minutes to get dressed and I'll come down." Dawn called through the door and waited until she heard the woman's footsteps leading away before she dragged her clothes from the dresser and walked into her bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her.  
  
It only took her minutes to change and run a brush through her hair before she was heading downstairs. She had dressed with clothes she hadn't worn a lot, that was all because her bags had been packed for her...before she even knew she was leaving. Another reason to hate being shipped off. No curtesy of being told why or where she was going until she was standing in front of the hotel.  
  
She walked silently down the stairs, shoulders slightly slouched, trying to pull off the tired look, which wasn't too hard considering she would have been sleeping at home in Sunnydale right about this time....if she had still been there. A black top hugged her upper-body, short-sleeved, showing off the scars on the inside of her arms, black hip-huggers fit snugly to her legs and flared over her white tennis shoes that stood out against black clothing.  
  
Another thing to hate her 'family' for. They hadn't packed her favorite boots. The thought along made her pout, but she pulled out of it and forced a smile to her lips as she came into the kitchen.  
  
"Good Morning..." It came from all around her and for a split second, she felt at home, until a body roughly brushed past hers and she stared after the boy...the man...the older teenager. He was silent the entire time as he got a plate for himself, then sat down across from Gunn and Fred.  
  
She stared at him a moment longer, but then snapped out of it as Angel pushed a plate into her hands and she found herself being ushered to the table. "Morning.." She muttered quietly, then frowned when she found herself being pushed down into a seat next to the other teen.  
  
"Connor, you weren't around yesterday when Dawn arrived. Dawn this is Connor..." Cordy informed as she gestured to the two and that only made Dawn frown more.  
  
So this was Angel's son. He didn't look a lot like him, same hair, he held himself in the same manner, but he looked smaller, and he had blue eyes.... Darla's eyes.  
  
"So your the slayer's sister.....you don't seem any different from a normal person." He stated plainly.  
  
"That's because I'm not any different.." She said dryly and turned ignoring him as she reached across to get the butter for her toast. She made a quiet shriek when his hand suddenly darted out and captured her wrist tightly though, "What's your problem." She basically growled, her eyes narrowing, but found he was looking at her arm.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
She blinked at the question and looked at her arm before snatching it away quickly, "Mind your own damn business." She said quietly, in a calm manner and for the rest of the breakfast, ignoring the boy next to her who hadn't asked any further questions.  
  
How odd it was. No one in her family, save Spike, had noticed her marks...and yet a total stranger had picked up on them only moments after meeting.  
  
TBC 


	3. Confusion

~* Chapter Two *~  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"I just don't understand any of it..." Dawn said with a shake of her head, staring at the man infront of her.  
  
Wesley had been trying to explain everything to Dawn for the past hour and still, it hadn't quite sunken in. It wasn't everyday that you were told Angelus would never be a problem, that a spell had taken the curse off him and now Angel was allowed to *shudder* get a happy.... And it was even more crazy to Dawn that Cordelia was pregnant by said vampire.  
  
She could get why Connor was around. He was this miracle child. But why would the 'Powers of Be' grant Angel another child... not that she wasn't happy for the two, but still... it didn't make since to her.  
  
She sighed and made a gesture with her hands, "Nevermind, I don't want to know anymore, your only making my head hurt." She dismissed and turned the lobby desk, pausing as her hearing picked up the sounds of swords clashing in the basement.  
  
That was another thing no one knew about. Ever since the ritual two years ago with Glory, on the top of that tower.... She'd been able to hear from great distances, and see... and it had been so much easier for her to pick up on things and learn. But no one saw it, everyone was always so busy.  
  
"God I'm starting to sound like Buffy." She whispered to herself and walked straight past the basement door. She was pitying herself, she rarely caught herself when she did it, but she hated it when she did.  
  
In a matter of minutes, she was locking her bedroom door and lighting candles around her room before easing herself down on the middle of the bed.  
  
Mostly everyone was out of the hotel, it would be easy to do this now.  
  
She sat there indian style for atleast 20 minutes before she began to really relax and concetrate, all at the same time.  
  
During the summer, she had found herself doing the same thing as she did now. Breathing a certain way, relaxing her body, but focusing her mind. She had been amazed at what she could do.  
  
Her eyes opened and were unfocused, because she wasn't seeing her room, she was seeing another life....  
  
The monks and everyone else had lied to them all about her.  
  
This wasn't her first time as a person in human form. In every life, she'd been human, she'd only been an energy ball before...before there was man on earth.  
  
She could remember every life. Every horrible thing that happened, and every wonderful miracle that occured. It gave her hope most of the time. That she's survive this life and go on to have a happier one in the next life.  
  
Only one thing stayed the same. In every life, she was a woman..she was a tall, dark haired, blue eyed woman that had the name of Dawn, and only slightly different physical appearances.  
  
The small smile that had been forming on her lips as she gazed around her new surroundings, suddenly fell and turned into a frown as her world shook.  
  
Her eyes fell closed then shot open with loud gasp, shocked by the person who loomed over her, shaking her.  
  
It took her a moment to realize who it was and then a scowl replaced her frown and she pushed him away, "Connor."  
  
Connor frowned, stepping away from the bed as the girl practically growled at him.  
  
"You were using magic's here?" He questioned, his face going hard, unreadable.  
  
"No! Does it look I was using anything? I was minding my own business when you came in here and felt the need to shake me out of my-" She paused, then quickly covered up her mistake. "day dream. I'm allowed to ogle half naked men in my own mind even if I'm not allowed to in real life." She smirked at him. "Now leave." She pointed to the door, her smirk fading.  
  
He took another step back, but didn't leave, "Do these...day dreams of yours usually consist of a green shield surrounding you?" He questioned, crossing his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow.  
  
That movement alone made her think of Angel. He may not look like his father, but he acted like him in alot of way.  
  
"None of her business."  
  
"Just as your cuts are none of my business." He countered.  
  
"Exactly. I don't need you sticking your nose where it's not needed or wanted."  
  
"But I wasn't sticking my nose anywhere." Connor frowned with confusion. Then sobered for a moment and continued on. "I stuck my hand through the shield.... I saw.... things. I need to know if it was witchcraft."  
  
"You weren't harmed, now get out!"  
  
"I won't!"  
  
"Why are you being so stubborn."  
  
"You fascinate me." He said suddenly, making her pause with confusion.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You have the look of innocence and purity....but your all dark beneath...in your eyes." His words struck Dawn silent and she just stared at him as he went on. "You cut yourself.." He stepped close to her, running his fingers against her pale, scarred inner arm. "Yet you smile as if nothing's wrong. You have sadness in you... but you hide yourself. Why?" His hand slowly reached up, brushing a lock of hair from her face.  
  
"I.... I don't know." She whispered. She didn't hide herself, did she? She thought she threw herself out there for all to see.  
  
"You don't believe me." He stepped back after his words then turned and fled right as Cordelia was calling for him.  
  
Dawn sunk back down on her bed, frowning as she thought over the words. She should be angry. He had invaded her privacy and then stayed when she told him to go.  
  
TBC 


End file.
